


New (Diabetic) in Town

by stellarfluid (dykeabetic)



Series: things are upside-down here in lazytown! [2]
Category: LazyTown
Genre: Diabetes, Diabetic Sportacus, Diabetic Stephanie, Gen, Sickfic, Stephanie and Sport have type-one diabetes cuz i said so, Type-One Character, Type-One Sportacus, Type-One Stephanie, kinda? i would say so but idk if anyone else was, she IS sick.. so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:34:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26399503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dykeabetic/pseuds/stellarfluid
Summary: There are few weird things going on with Stephanie.Her life's about to change, but that's okay. Stephanie always tackles change head-on.(Stephanie gets diagnosed with type-one diabetes fic :D)
Relationships: Stephaie Meanswell & All Her Friends, Stephanie Meanswell & Sportacus, Stephanie Meanswell/Trixie, and Stephanie & Milford & Bessie obviously, and maybe bits of, i don't feel comfy writing real shippy stuff with them even if its just romance, i guess i'd feel weird not tagging them LOL, if u squint but not really cuz even though they're older in this fic, they're still like.. young and im an adult now sooo
Series: things are upside-down here in lazytown! [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545391
Kudos: 12





	New (Diabetic) in Town

**Author's Note:**

> HI IM BACK WITH ANOTHER INSTALLMENT OF MY LAZYTOWN DIABETES FICS! i just love to project, ok, and as a new depressed, immunocompromised college student with adhd during covid-19, i need to revisit my childhood so i don't have a stress-induced break down haHA. anyway.
> 
> so here we are! i missed lazytown very much. im happy to be back.
> 
> that being said, this happens when stephanie is in high school, because that's when a lot of kids are getting diagnosed these days! she's still younger than i was when i was diagnosed, though :) on that note, the only thing i know about elves is stuff from d&d and im basing how elves age off of d&d so while the kids are older, sportacus is gonna be the same age, comparatively speaking. in case that's important, i guess?
> 
> also, content warning for emetophobia and hospitalization, cuz,, that happens when you have undiagnosed diabetes :') also implied use of needles, cuz, ya know. diabetes.
> 
> anyway thnx for reading love u <3

Milford Meanswell is the first one to notice something, of course. It’s the start of the summer, and he’s just _so excited_ to see Stephanie again, he can hardly wait! The past couple of days have been spent frantically cleaning, digging through the closet for all the sports equipment he’s kept for her, repainting fences and mowing the lawn in the Sports Field… now, he’s pulling — not burned! — cookies out of the oven, and setting them on the kitchen counter. He hums a happy little tune to himself as he checks his watch. Stephanie should be here any minute! Time to make his way to the bus stop. On his way, he chirps out his happy announcement to everyone he passes: “Stephanie will arrive today!”

Milford was never able to have kids of his own. He had never been married, and was far too busy… and frankly, based on how badly he had taken care of Stephanie’s needs when she was a ten-year old, he severely doubts he would be able to take care of a smaller child — or a _baby_ — himself. Therefore, he’s very grateful that Stephanie has come to stay with him for the summer the past three years, and that there were always people there to help him take care of her. And has she grown! She’s fifteen now, and has just finished her first year of high school… high school! His precious little Stephanie is growing up! 

“Uncle Milford!” There she is now! Her arm is stretched in a wave, and a big smile is plastered on her face, and Milford is so, _so_ happy to see her.

“Stephanie!” He cries in delight and he approaches her — then, a double take — “My, you’re so tall!”

“I had a growth spurt!” She grins, and the summer air feels pleasantly warmer, the sun pleasantly brighter. Still smiling, she looks around. “The town looks good, Uncle Milford! It’s so neat and tidy, and I can tell there’s a fresh coat of paint on that wall right there! It looks wonderful!” She is very good at noticing things!

“Yes! Thank you very much for noticing! I wanted everything to be absolutely _perfect_ for your arrival — oh, oh! And I have cookies waiting for you back at the house! And they aren’t burnt! Would you like me to help you carry your bags?”

The answer is always the same, but he always asks anyway.

“Um, actually, can you?” Stephanie asks. Well… _that’s_ not the same answer; not the answer he was expecting. “I’m a bit tired today.”

“Oh!” He is surprised, but not reluctant. “Yes, yes, of course! Let me… take that from you…” He picks up the bright pink backpack she set on the ground… 

“Oh, wait,” she says, and reaches out and grabs a _very_ big, pink water bottle out of the side pocket. “I’ll carry this.”

“Stephanie, that water bottle is _huge!”_ He can’t stop himself from gaping at it. “I’ve never seen one that big before! You must be drinking a lot of water!”

“Yeah, I’ve been weirdly thirsty recently!” Stephanie says, lifting the water bottle to her own eye level and glancing at it. “But it’s good to drink water, anyway, so I suppose it’s not too bad. This water bottle really comes in handy, though!”

“Yes, I’m sure, I’m sure!” He puts her backpack on his back. As soon as he puts it on, he knows it will start hurting his back very soon. “Ah,” he says, “let’s go to the house. The cookies are waiting!” 

Stephanie nods cheerfully. “Right!” she says, and begins skipping towards the house. 

_That’s_ the girl Milford knows. 

* * *

Sportacus catches on to how much water Stephanie is drinking very quickly, too. She is doing an _excellent_ job at staying hydrated, and that’s always a good thing, but he can’t help to notice how often she says things like, “Hold on, I’m thirsty, I’m gonna get a drink of water”. With the amount of water she’s been drinking, it’s… odd that she’s getting thirsty so much. 

He’s not sure if he should say anything to her. He’s not sure if it’s really anything to be worried about. Hydration is important, after all, so this was a good habit for her to have, but… something about it didn’t seem quite right. 

It doesn’t take him long to notice the next thing, either, which is that Stephanie isn’t eating as much Sportscandy as she used to. Which, also, isn’t too much of a problem, because he knows she has a good diet anyway, but the words, “I’m not hungry,” seem to come out of her mouth almost as often as “I’m thirsty” does, which is… notable, at least.

He asks Milford if she’s still eating all her meals. He says yes. 

Sportacus guesses it’s fine, then. 

* * *

It’s Trixie who notices something next.

“Has anyone seen Pinkie?” she asks her friends. It’s around 11 A.M. now as they’re gathering to play. This is the latest they had gathered to play during the summer in like, five years, because Stephanie has always come to find them earlier than that.

Stephanie isn’t even here _now._

“Stephanie? Nope, haven’t seen her,” Pixel says. “But I’ve been playing my new video game.”

“I haven’t seen her either,” Stingy says, “but that’s because _I’ve_ been counting all _my money!”_

“And I’ve been eating _candy!_ ” Ziggy says. 

And Trixie had been causing some mischief. Some things never change, huh?

“But normally I see Stephanie, even _when_ I eat candy,” Ziggy says. “And I haven’t seen her, either!”

“So _no one_ has seen Stephanie today?”

Everyone shakes their heads, and says “mmm-mmm”, or “nope”, like always.

“...Weird,” Trixie says.

“Is it?” Pixel asks. “I mean, she could have just slept in. Everyone wakes up late sometimes, including Stephanie!”

“True, but even when Stephanie _does_ sleep in, it’s never this late. Normally she’s out here at, like, ten at the latest.”

“Well, maybe she _is_ out here,” Stingy says, very matter-of-factly, of course. “Maybe we haven’t seen her because we just missed her.”

“But at least _one_ of us would have seen her by now if she were out! This town isn’t very big! She would have passed by one of our houses and said hi through the window, or one of us would have passed her on the street, or we would have heard her kicking a ball around, or playing music, or— or… We just would have known, okay!”

Silence, because she’s right.

“I just think it’s weird,” Trixie says. 

“Hm…” Pixel thinks. “I mean, she could just… not be getting enough sleep.” He laughs a bit. “Remember when Sportacus and I didn’t get enough sleep for a couple of days?”

“Yeah!” Ziggy says. “You both slept _so much_ during the day, it was crazy!”

“Yeah… but Stephanie has never been the type to not to go to sleep at night, you know?” Trixie says thoughtfully. “I think something’s up.”

“Maybe… we should ask the Mayor?” Stingy offers. “If anything were wrong, he’d be the first to know.”

“I think we should!” Ziggy says, jumping down from the wall where he was sitting. He’s ten now, so he’s big enough to get on and off the wall without any help. “Wait, but I can be Sportacus coming! Let’s wait for him, and have him come with us!”

He’s pointing — Trixie turns to see Sportacus’ airship pull up nearby. She decides that they should wait for him, too. They don’t really need to — they used to wait for him before they did things because they were little kids and he’s an adult, but Pixel is sixteen now, and Trixie is fourteen, which makes them, officially Big Kids who don’t need to wait for adults anymore, and since Stingy and Ziggy are always with them, they don’t have to wait for adults either — but old habits die hard. Besides, Sportacus isn’t _just_ an adult. He’s also their friend. 

And the more she thought about it, the weirder she felt about the whole Stephanie thing, and she knew that if anything really _was_ wrong, Sportacus would know how to help. 

He jumps down from his airship and grins at them.

“Hi, kids!” he says. “What are we up to today?”

“Not much! I’m worried about Stephanie,” Trixie replies nonchalantly. 

“... _Worried?_ Why?” And now Sportacus is worried too.

“Stephanie is coming out to play later and later every day,” Ziggy explains. “And it’s _weird!”_

“None of us have seen her or anything!” Stingy chimes in.

“And she _always_ gets enough sleep, so it wouldn’t be like her to sleep all day,” Pixel adds.

“It’s weird!” Trixie finishes. 

“That _is_ weird!” Sportacus replies. “Maybe we should ask the Mayor about her?”

“That was _my_ idea!” Stingy says.

“And we were about to go do that, but we wanted _you_ to come too!” Ziggy says.

“Thank you for waiting,” Sportacus tells them. “Now, let’s hurry to the Mayor’s house. We have no time to lose!”

The group makes their way to the Mayor’s house, and find him tending the flowers in his garden. “Hello, Mayor!” Sportacus greets him, and he looks up from his work.

“Ah, hello, Sportacus! And hello, children! What can I do for you this fine morning?”

“We just wanted to ask about Stephanie,” Trixie said. “None of us have seen her today, so… where is she?”

The Mayor frowns. “Ah, yes. I am glad you are all here — especially _you,_ Sportacus — because I am getting _quite worried_ about my dear Stephanie!”

“You have?” Sportacus asks. 

“How come?” Trixie asks. She was right! There is something wrong!

“Well, she has been sleeping a lot more than she normally does,” the Mayor says. Then, all in one breath: “She goes to bed at 8:08 _exactly_ at night, sleeps in late in the morning, and takes naps in the afternoon! And she’s been drinking a lot more water than she normally does! And she said she wasn’t hungry for supper last night! And— and— and she had me help carry her bags when she got here and she _never_ does that, and _ohhh,_ I’m so _worried—”_

“Mayor, Mayor! Slow down! Take a deep breath, alright?” Sportacus says, and the Mayor takes a deep breath. Meanwhile, Trixie makes a mental note of everything the Mayor just said.

 _It’s weird,_ Trixie thinks. _So, so weird._

* * *

Stephanie has been helping Uncle Milford do chores today. She likes to help, when she can. Uncle Milford does so much for her and the town, after all, so of course she likes to help make his job easier. Half way through cleaning the house, he was called into the Town Hall by Bessie. 

“Don’t worry, Uncle Milford! I can finish the chores.”

“Are you sure, Stephanie?” her uncle asks, frowning at her. “You’re not… _tired_ right now, are you?”

“No, Uncle Milford,” she sighs. Everyone has been asking her stuff like that, recently — asking if she’s tired, and if she said yes they’d ask her why, and then she’d have to say she doesn’t know but she _really_ doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal, because she’s been doing everything she’s supposed to do — going to bed on time, exercising regularly (maybe not as much as she’d like to, because sometimes she _is_ too tired, but she still at least dances every day, even if its just in her room for a little bit. It’s better than nothing, and sometimes, better than nothing is enough), and eating Sportscandy with her meals, even if she doesn’t feel super hungry. She’s doing everything she’s always done, she’s just… drinking more water. And eating less between meals, because she’s not as hungry. And sleeping a lot.

Maybe it's just a teenager thing, and it just hasn’t happened to Pixel yet? They were the two oldest, so other than him, she has no basis for what being a teenager looks like. So it could just be a teenager thing, and maybe something like this will happen to him, soon, too.

That makes sense to her. So she’s really not that worried about it. 

“I’m fine, really! Go do your job!”

“Alright, alright… just be careful! And feel free to take a nap if you get tired!”

“I will, Uncle! But if I finish and I’m _not_ tired, I’m gonna go play.”

“Yes, do that! Yes, yes, of course. I would like it if you went outside to play. In fact, you can go now! I can finish the chores on my own, it’s quite alright!”

“I _wanna_ help you, Uncle! I promise I’ll go outside when I’m done. I’ll even open the windows so I can get fresh air while cleaning!”

“Well… if you insist… I must get going now. See you later, Stephanie!”

“Bye, Uncle Milford!”

She waves him off, then begins opening all the windows. She turns on some music to listen to while she cleans, and then gets to work.

She does all the dishes and puts them away. She picks things off the floor, then sweeps the kitchen and vacuums the living room. She dusts and wipes down every surface. She does both her and her uncle’s laundry, and organizes the desk in her room. It sure is nice to be up and moving! It’s nice to be doing something! She even has _fun_ doing it, working in some dancing to chase the mundanity away. 

She’s feeling fine until she goes to put the vacuum away, but just as she opens the closet where it belongs, she suddenly gets _really_ dizzy. She blinks, caught off guard. Well that’s… strange. 

She should probably lie down. 

She leaves the closet door open; leaves the vacuum in the middle of the hallway. Her room isn’t that far away, she’ll just go in there, sit down until she feels better, and then finish putting all the cleaning supplies away.

The thing is, she doesn’t even make it all the way to her bedroom before she has to lay down on the hallway floor.

She isn’t tired. Not at all. And other than the dizziness, she feels fine. She lays on the floor for a while, not even worried about what’s going on — instead, thinking, _maybe I need some Sportscandy before I go out. I probably just need some extra energy. I wonder what my friends are doing?_

She isn’t on the floor for that long. Soon, she gets on her feet, finishes putting the supplies away, and grabs herself an orange as she heads out the door.

* * *

“I don’t feel like playing today,” Stephanie says a couple of days later. “I’ll keep score for you guys, though!”

Stephanie’s favorite sport has always been soccer, and Ziggy doesn’t think she’s _ever_ said no to playing it before. Not in the past five years, at least. Unless he forgot. But still, it doesn’t seem like Stephanie to turn down playing _any_ sport, _especially_ not soccer!

“Are you sure?” Sportacus asks. Stephanie takes a drink from her water bottle at the same time, so it takes her an extra second to answer.

“Yeah, I’m sure! Don’t worry about me.”

All the others shared a look. “Okay, if you say so,” Sportacus says after a moment. “Come on, everyone, let’s go play.”

As the kids walk out to the soccer field, Ziggy reaches and tugs at the hem of Sportacus’ shirt.

“Hey, Sportacus?”

“Yes, Ziggy?” Sportacus says. Ziggy can tell Sportacus is worried. He’s Ziggy’s idol, after all, so Ziggy can just _tell_ when something’s wrong.

“Can I sit out this time, too? I wanna sit with Stephanie so she doesn’t get lonely. Is that okay?”

“Of course it’s okay, Ziggy.” Sportacus smiles at him, and it’s a real smile, a good smile. “I think that would be very nice of you.”

“Okay! You can count on me to keep Stephanie from getting lonely! And I can help keep score! Thanks, Sportacus!” He begins to run off. Sportacus smiles and waves, before turning to kick the soccer ball to Trixie. 

Stephanie is just kinda… staring off into space when Ziggy calls her name.

“Stephanie, Stephanie!” he says, and she blinks as she turns to look at him.

“Hi, Ziggy!” she says. “Aren’t you gonna go play?”

“Nope!” He smiles at her. “I’m gonna stay with you so you don’t get lonely!”

“Awe, thanks, Ziggy,” she says. “But you don’t really have to. I wouldn’t want to keep you away from all the fun.”

“But talking to you is fun, too! So I don’t mind!”

That makes Stephanie smile, and she pats the bench next to her. Ziggy sits.

She does look tired, Ziggy thinks as he looks at her closer up. And the water bottle she’s holding is almost empty, even though it was full when they first came out here. They haven’t been out here for that long.

“Stephanie, are you _sure_ you’re okay?” he asks.

“Huh?” Stephanie asks. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I dunno… you just look tired. And you’re drinking so much water! I’ve never seen anyone drink that much water! And you don’t want to play much anymore! And the Mayor’s worried about you! And Sportacus is worried about you too! And if Sportacus is worried, I’m worried!”

“Ziggy… it’s okay. Really,” Stephanie assures him. “I promise that I’m okay. I’m sure that whatever is happening will blow over soon. Besides, I don’t feel like this every day, so I know it’ll be fine!”

“Okay…” Ziggy says. “But— but— you— you know you’re my best friend, right, Stephanie?”

“Awe, really?”

“Yes! You’re the greatest friend in the whole wide world! And I just want to make sure you’re feeling a-okay!”

“You’re a great friend too, Ziggy. I’m really glad you’re my friend! And I’m glad you stayed to talk to me! Oh! Have I told you about the cool book I’m reading?”

They don’t mention it again after that. Ziggy just… _really_ hopes she’s right.

* * *

Weeks pass by, and it’s now three weeks after Stephanie got back to Lazytown. 

She has not gotten better, in fact, Sportacus thinks she’s getting _worse._

She sleeps more and more every day. She eats less and less. She drinks more water. She plays less games. The Mayor says she’s never hungry — that she’s never hungry enough to even eat _meals_ anymore. She spends most of her days sleeping. 

And she’s losing weight. Sportacus can tell. He didn’t notice at first, but now she’s lost enough that it’s apparent. 

That is… not good.

Everyone is starting to get very worried now. The worry puts most of their playing to a standstill. It’s not that the kids don’t _want_ to play, but it’s just… not the same knowing that Stephanie is here in town but not outside playing with them. Stingy puts it best: “She’s my— _our_ friend, and when we play without her, it feels like we’re leaving her out.” He’s very, very right. Even if they’re not leaving her out on purpose —even if _she’s_ the one who’s choosing not to play — it just feels wrong.

He feels like he should do something. He feels like he should help her. He _is_ the hero, after all. Not only that, but part of him feels like he _knows_ how to help her. Something about this feels strangely familiar, like he’s seen it before…

He’s pacing in his ship, trying to figure it out. He’s seen this before, he knows he has! But when? And what is it?

It’s hard to remember things like this when you’ve been alive for a century. There’s just so much he’s learned, so much information in his head, it’s hard to keep track of it all. 

But this is important. He needs to figure it out.

He begins slowly moving back in time, trying to dredge out old memories. Wherever it was he saw this, it was long before he came to Lazytown. Was it when he was growing up? When he was young?

Wait a minute. When he was young. When he was a child. There was something Very Big and Important that happened to him when he was a child. He looks down at the inconspicuous thing clipped to his waistband, and thinks.

Is this what happened to _him_ back when he first learned he needed that little thing?

The gears are turning faster now. He tries to remember what happened. How they found out. What the symptoms that led them to this conclusion was. And the more he thinks, the more he realizes. The more it makes sense.

Increased thirst. Lack of appetite. Fatigue. Weight loss. Those — accompanied by finally, nausea — _were_ the symptoms he had, weren’t they? 

That… _definitely_ isn’t good. But is he right?

* * *

“Stephanie, will you _pleeeaase_ eat supper? I’m beginning to get very worried, you barely eat at all anymore!”

Milford doesn’t know what to _do._ Stephanie looks positively awful, with those tired circles under her eyes and her uncannily-thin body. 

“I’m really not hungry, Uncle.”

“But you must _eat,_ Stephanie! Not eating is unhealthy! And you’re losing so much weight… you must eat. This is very bad for you.”

“I know…” Stephanie says. “I’m not doing it on purpose though! Whenever I eat, I don’t feel good.” She sighs. “Maybe we should bring me to the doctor. I’m probably sick.”

“Oh, poor girl, sick!” Milford cries. His sweet, sweet Stephanie, sick! “Yes, yes, I will take you to the doctor first thing in the morning. The doctor is closed now.” He looks at her. “But… please try to eat at least a little bit now. I’m so very worried about you.”

Stephanie smiles at him a bit. “Okay, Uncle. I’ll eat a little bit,” she says. 

“Thank you, Stephanie,” Milford says, and Stephanie eats some food.

Later that night, though, about an hour after Stephanie said she was going to bed, she comes back out to the living room where Milford sits reading a book. She looks very pale.

“Uncle Milford…?” she says. “Um… I just threw up.”

* * *

Sportacus is woken up by his crystal going off. He sits bolt upright. _Someone in Lazytown is in trouble!_

He jumps out of bed right away, of course. It’s late for him, but he can go back to sleep after he helps whoever it is in trouble. He flips over to the cockpit of his airship so he can make his way to town (his ship always drifts away from town a bit during the night) and gets there just in time for…

For him to get _mail._ He sees it coming, and leaps out of the cockpit to catch it. For his crystal to go off _and_ for him to get mail during the night… something has to be terribly wrong.

The letter is from the Mayor, and it is very, very short.

_Dear Sportacus,_

_Stephanie is very sick. She threw up after supper tonight._

_I am bringing her to the hospital. I am very scared._

_Sincerely, Mayor Meanswell_

Oh, Sportacus was definitely right. He now knows _exactly_ what’s wrong with Stephanie. 

* * *

Every person in Lazytown — even Robbie Rotten, and it’s not even an accident this time — gets the same call the next morning.

“Stephanie is in the hospital!” Bessie Busybody cries.

“What?! _Really?!”_ Ziggy cries back. “What happened?! Is she alright?! Oh no… oh no oh no oh no…” 

“The doctors say she is very sick,” Bessie explains, “but that she’ll be okay very soon. They’re fixing it right now in the hospital. Milford wants all of you kids to go visit her, though!” 

“Oh! Okay! I’m coming, I’m coming, I’m coming! Oh! I’m going to bring her some candy so she feels better!”

“No, don’t do that!” Bessie shouts, and Ziggy is surprised. 

“Huh?”

“Stephanie can’t have candy!”

“She can’t? Why?”

“She can’t have anything sweet, I’m afraid!”

“Nothing? No candy, no cookies, no cake, _nothing?”_

“Nothing!”

Ziggy stops in his tracks.

“But Stephanie _loves_ cake!”

“Yes, but she can’t have any.”

“That’s… that’s terrible…”

And then he starts crying. 

* * *

Sportacus gets to the hospital as soon as visiting hours start, so other than the Mayor, who was allowed to spend the night because he’s Stehpanie’s guardian, Sportacus is the first one there. A nurse leads him to Stephanie’s hospital room, where he finds the mayor asleep in a chair, and Stephanie looking absolutely bored to tears in a hospital bed.

It honestly breaks his heart. She shouldn’t be like this.

He wishes he could have caught it earlier. It happened to him, after all. A very, very long time ago, but… still. He should have realized what was happening. 

Stephanie doesn’t notice him standing in the doorway. She’s watching a movie, but really doesn’t seem that interested. Eventually, she huffs out a sigh and turns to grab the remote off the table next to her, either to change the movie or just turn the TV off entirely, and _that’s_ when she sees him.

Her face lights up. “Sportacus!” 

The Mayor wakes with a start. “Who!? What?! Why!?”

“Sportacus is here, Uncle!” Stephanie exclaims, turning to him for a moment before turning back to Sportacus. “Guess what, Sportacus!”

“...What?” Sportacus replies, and he can’t help but smile.

“I’m like you now!”

Sportacus blinks. And then he laughs.

“Yes!” he says, laughing and ignoring the tears in his eyes as he walks over to pull Stephanie into a tight hug. “Yes, you are!”

Sportacus was right. 

But Stephanie’s going to be just fine. 

* * *

“Stephanie has _type-one diabetes,_ too?!”

“Wow, you have that, don’t you, Sportacus?”

“Is that why she was so sick?”

“Oh, so she got sick because her blood sugar was high for too long?”

“Bessie said she can’t have _cake!_ Wait— she still can? She just can’t have any now because they’re trying to fix her blood sugar? Thank goodness!”

“Does that mean she’ll get an insulin pump like yours?”

“She _is_ going to be okay, right?”

“Of course she is. She’s just like me.” 

* * *

Stephanie’s life has to change. But that’s okay. Stephanie tackles that change head-on. 

Really, her lifestyle doesn’t have to change _too_ much. She already has a good diet and exercises regularly, which, as Sportacus had explained all those years ago when the kids had asked about _his_ diabetes, goes a long way to help keep everything under control. She’s a little disappointed that she can’t drink juice as much anymore, but she _can_ still eat cake, which, of course, is a relief to Ziggy. She gets used to giving herself insulin very quickly, and even teaches her friends how to help her. Sportacus increases the amount of Sportscandy he brings when they play games together in case her blood sugar gets low, and he keeps insulin in a little insulated case in his backpack, in case her blood sugar gets high. 

The only thing she has trouble with are the glucose checks. “I just don’t like them,” she tells Sportacus. “They don’t hurt that bad, but… I mean, you know. You’re diabetic too. I just don’t like them.”

She’s sitting on a bench during a break from today’s game (basketball). She’s supposed to check her blood sugar after every half hour of exercising, but it’s been a while since they stopped, and she _still_ hasn’t done it. She’s just sitting on that bench, almost glaring at the poker in her hand. She has to poke her finger with it, but she just _doesn’t want to._ She hates it. 

“Want to know the truth?” Sportacus says, kneeling in front of her holding the monitor itself. “I’ve never liked doing that either. But you know, soon you’ll be able to get something so you won’t _have_ to do that all the time.”

“Really?”

“Yes! See?” He extends his arm and rolls up his sleeve a bit to show a little thing on his arm. “This,” he says, “is a constant glucose monitor, or a CGM. It keeps track of your blood sugar all the time!”

“Whoa!” Stephanie leans forward and tilts her head to get a better look at it. It was small and grey, and was held on by a patch of adhesive. It was cool!

“You’ll be able to get one soon,” he promises her. “But you need to get used to the finger pokes first, in case of an emergency. These don’t work all the time.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Stephanie sighs. “I still don’t like it, though.”

“I know,” Sportacus says, “and I’m sorry. I understand, I really do. But you can get through it! I know you can! And I’ll be right here to help you.”

She’s so grateful for Sportacus. It’s nice to have someone she knows who has the same thing as her, who can help her and give her advice. This would probably be a lot harder for her if she didn’t.

“Okay, how about this. I’m gonna count down from three, and when I get to one, you poke your finger. Is that alright?”

“Yeah, I think I can do that.”

“Alright. Ready? Three… two… one!”

And… she doesn’t do it. And she doesn’t do it the next time they try, either. It takes her three tries before she actually pokes her finger. 

And Sportacus helps and supports her all the way.

* * *

If you were to ask Stephanie what it’s like to suddenly have type-one diabetes, she wouldn’t be able to tell you. It’s not that she doesn’t know, just that… she doesn’t really know how to explain it. It doesn’t ruin her life. She can still do everything she has always done. She still eats the same things, and plays the same games, and does everything with her signature smile.

Are things completely the same? Of course not. And some days are really hard. There are days when she just can’t keep her blood sugar under control, days where she feels tired or sick for no reason, days where she can’t play as well as she’d like to. But that’s okay. Because that doesn’t mean she’s not taking care of herself, and it doesn’t mean she can’t do the things she likes. It’s okay to have off days.

Her friends and family are more than supportive. Before long, she gets a CGM, and an insulin pump just like Sportacus. Bessie even helps her sew a pocket onto her dress for it. (Sportacus wears his in a blue case, and Stephanie’s is in a pink case. Sometimes they swap cases, just for fun.)

Stephanie’s the new diabetic in town, and she still has a lot to learn about how her body’s gonna work from now on. 

She’s always had fun learning new things, though.

Stephanie is happy, healthy, diabetic. Stephanie wouldn’t change that for the world.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> wow i haven't written this much for a LONG time im honestly very proud of myself <3 that's what having multiple hyperfixations that make you actually happy at once does to you i guess! (thanks lazytown, hadestown, and stardew valley ur some real troupers)
> 
> the part where stephanie gets light headed and lays down on the floor for 15 minutes and then gets back up and keeps doing what she was doing is based off of real experience.... i did that RIGHT BEFORE going to pick my best friend up so we could go to pride fest together and i didn't even bat an eye <3 i think its funny looking back cuz i literally tried to make it to at least lay down on my sister's bed cuz it was closest and i made it like 2 feet from her door and then gave up and then laid there and then got up and just WASNT CONCERNED AT ALL
> 
> and also bessie telling ziggy that stephanie can't have sweets and ziggy thinking she meant "can't have sweets ever again" and starts crying is also based on a real life experience even though that's not ENTIRELY what happened,, my mom told my brother that i couldn't have a bagel when i got diagnosed and he cried and while that wasn't the REASON he cried its funny to pretend that it was LMAO
> 
> anyway thank u again for reading!


End file.
